Sunday, 20 December 2015

5 - House sparrow - Passer domesticus
When fully grown the bird is around 16 cm long.
Females and young birds are pale brown and grey. Males have brighter black,white and brown markings.The adults mainly eat seeds of grain and weeds,but will eat any thing they can find. Their favorite foods are oats and wheat. Females normally lay around four to five eggs.

4 - Common Starling - Sturnus vulgaris

The common starling is 19-23 cm long with a wing span
of 31-44 cm!! The starling eats a lot of creatures such as
spiders,craneflies, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, grasshopers and manny more. Breeding takes place in spring and summer. The females lay on a daily basis. The young are born blind and naked, they will be able to see nine days after birth.

3 - Common Black Bird - Turdus merula

The common black bird is 23.5 - 29 cm long.
The male black bird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males. The female lays 3 to 5 bluish green eggs marked with reddish-brown blotches.A common black bird has a life expectancy of 2.4 years! Based on data form bird ringing the oldest record is 21 years and 10 months!
Amazing, right?????

2 - Blue tit - Paridae sp.

A wonderful mix of blue, yellow, white and green makes the blue tit one of our most attractive and most recognizable garden visitors. In the winter, family flocks join up with other tits and search for food.

1 - Common Wood pigeon - Columba palumbus

They mainly eat vegetables, taken from fields,gardens and lawns.
Young shoots and seedlings are their favorite food. In the autumn they will eat figs and acorns. They will also eat grubs,flies, ants and even slow worms!! The female will normally lay around two eggs. They will take around 19 days to hatch.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

5 - Loggerhead sea turtle - Caretta caretta

They have been recorded twice along the black sea coast! It is the world's second largest hard- shelled turtle! The turtle is omnivorous, feeding mainly on bottom dwelling invertebrates,
such as: star fish, sea cucumbers, fish, sea worms and many more!
I have never seen this reptile.

4 - European legless lizard - Pseudopus apodus

This lizard can reach up to 135 cm! Their favourite foods are: snails, slugs and even small mammals which might be the reason they are mainly active when there is wet weather.
They will bite, musk and hiss if thought to be threatened.
I have never found this reptile.

3 - Kotshy's gecko - Cyrtopodion kotschyi

It is a very small lizard growing to a length of 10 cm including its tail!! Females are often a little bit bigger then the males. Its habitats are: cliffs, dry stone areas, tree trunks and stone walls. They are normally nocturnal, but at cooler times of the year they will come out in the day. The female will lay one or two eggs under a rock. When born (after 18 weeks or so) they will be around two cm long!!!!! I have seen this reptile once!

My friend bought into school. He put it in an awful plastic box without any holes. I had a go at him for being so silly and in annoyance, I snatched the box and took out the gecko
I checked if it was alright, it looked fine but I didn't want to give it back to the boy.
So I made a RUN FOR IT!!! LOL and left him there with his box.
When I got home I placed him on a rock near my pond.

2 - Four- lined snake - Elaphe quatuorlineata

Adults usually grow up to 180 cm but in extreme cases can reach 200 cm in length.
There is another name for this snake - the Bulgarian rat snake. Their main diet consists of: rabbit, mice and squirrels, lizards, birds and tortoise eggs!!
The mating season lasts from April to May. The eggs are laid in the summer. Usually, the snakes lay between 6 -18 eggs per clutch. They incubate them for about 40 to 60 days.

I have never seen this reptile!

1 - Dahl's whip snake - Platyceps najadum

Females lay between 3-16 eggs in a clutch!
This snake is threatened by forest fires and intensive agriculture! It has a slim body and in rare cases can be found up to a metre in full length. It lives in desert and rocky landscapes, forests and fields.
I have never seen this reptile, but really want to!